HCL help ambulance service with international recruitment campaign

NWAS faced difficulties in attracting a large number of qualified and experienced candidates in the north of England and, more specifically, in the suburbs of Greater Manchester.

The North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) NHS Trust, which is the second largest ambulance trust in England, was facing extreme difficulty in filling paramedic positions. NWAS is a busy Trust with 109 ambulance stations, around 1,000 vehicles across the North West and receives over 1,170,000 emergency calls per year.

The challenge

NWAS faced difficulties in attracting a large number of qualified and experienced candidates in the north of England and, more specifically, in the suburbs of Greater Manchester.

In August 2015, HCL was approached by NWAS to:

Source over 45 qualified paramedics with a full driving licence.

The solution

With a shortage of UK paramedics, HCL targetted paramedics in Poland due to the qualification being equivalent. A bespoke marketing campaign was launched in order to attract qualified and skilled candidates to fulfil the Trust’s requirements.

The recruitment campaign included:

Attendance at the Third Paramedics Congress in Krakow

Recruitment open day in Warsaw

Job advertisements on HCL websites in English and Polish

Job advertisements on Polish Job Boards

Bespoke landing page for NWAS in the HCL website

Social media campaign including Facebook and Twitter

Email marketing

The results

Through a combination of thorough interviews, HCL drew up an initial shortlist of high-quality candidates from Poland to be interviewed by the Trust over Skype.

Of those interviewed, 43 applicants were offered and accepted the posts. We continue to work with the Trust to fulfil their staffing needs.